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Privacy and Technology Can, and Should, Co-Exist

Hanni M. Fakhoury is a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where he focuses on free speech and privacy litigation and advocacy.

Updated December 12, 2012, 10:52 AM

In a case dealing with GPS technology, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote this year that “new technology may provide increased convenience or security at the expense of privacy.” He noted that people might find that tradeoff not only “worthwhile,” but even “inevitable.”

Technology doesn't involve an “inevitable” tradeoff with privacy. The only inevitability must be the demand that privacy be a value built into our technology.

This view is fast becoming a common one. As technology becomes cheaper, and its capabilities grow, so does the fear that technology has the ability to shrink privacy, allowing easier access to intimate details like our DNA sequence, precise location and reading habits.

But history has shown that technology also has the ability to enhance privacy. Software like Tor allows people to browse the Internet anonymously, giving people in repressed countries the ability to access uncensored information. Anonymous Web mail services allow whistleblowers to safely communicate with journalists, and give voice to political dissidents living in repressive regimes. A businessman who encrypts data on a company laptop computer keeps valuable trade secret information private from competitors if lost or stolen.

For these individuals, the use of technology does not involve an “inevitable” tradeoff with privacy. Rather, their use of technology is specifically intended to protect their privacy. We should all view technology the same way; the only inevitability must be the demand that privacy be a value built into our technology.

This requires confronting privacy problems head on. Consumers should expect technology companies to keep their information secure. Governments can play a role in protecting privacy rights. California recently sued Delta Airlines over its mobile app’s failure to include a privacy policy and updated the state’s reader privacy law to include digital books. In Washington, a Senate committee recently passed an amendment to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, to require all law enforcement agencies obtain a search warrant before reading your e-mail.

There will of course be difficulties along the way, and progress may move slowly. But giving up now will lead to a far more damaging result: the complete, rather than the gradual, erosion of the fundamental human right of privacy.